The Hush Kit blog featured a rather interesting article on a Soviet aircraft which I was previously somewhat unfamiliar with: the Sukhoi Su-15. While I won’t debate their comparison/contrast conclusions of the Su-15 versus the Lightning, F-4 Phantom, or F-106 Delta Dart (they did forget that the F-106 carried its weapons internally which anecdotal evidence says gave it a speed edge over the other aircraft in this mix), it’s mainly an excuse to do a bit of additional research and find some pictures and video of the Su-15.
As it happens, finding video of a Cold War era Soviet fighter which was never exported is rather difficult. There’s plenty of MIG-21 videos out there, since those are still operating in a handful of countries. Same goes for most other Soviet exports, or those aircraft old enough to have phased into the high-priced airshow market. But from what I can find on Wikipedia, the Su-15 was initially deployed in 1965 and rather rapidly withdrawn from Russian service by 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union. My generally reliable reference book Soviet Wings: Modern Soviet Military Aircraft, published in 1991, has no entries for the Su-15, which leads me to believe that the Flagon was largely gone from Soviet use even before the fall of the USSR. Which seems about right, given that its contemporaries were also mostly out of the bomber intercepting business by the late ’80s.
Here’s about the best video I could find on YouTube.
Interestingly enough, although the Flagon looks really long, it’s only a foot or so longer than an F-4, and almost six feet shorter than an F-106. I think it’s just an optical trick of the relatively tiny (thirty foot) delta wingspan and the cockpit bubble that give it such a lengthy look.
Man, but it would be fun to try and export one of these to the west and get it flying again. Sure, the gas and maintenance would be insanely expensive, but hey, if I ever somehow become an eccentric billionaire, this would definitely be on the list.